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Terms & Conditions

Note: Two important alterations to these Terms & Conditions have taken place:

1. The previous three competition categories of PHOTO, FILM and DESIGN were merged into one competition category welcoming submissions of any of these three kinds. The jury that was previously split into a separate jury for each category and city is consequently also merged into one per city.

2. The European tour Caught by [Umeå] will not stop in Milan, it will go from Paris to Barcelona directly. This means the semi-finalists and People´s Vote winners will be presented at the VIP dinner in Barcelona instead.

Umeå is a city located about 600 km north of Stockholm and about 400 km south of the Arctic Circle. It is one of the fastest growing cities in Europe.

In Umeå a progressive and dynamic cultural life is perceived as key to continuous positive growth. It is a buzzing and youthful city with a rich cultural life, inviting and encouraging new ways of thinking and creating. In the region around Umeå the Sámi people, the EU’s only indigenous people, live near to their roots and traditions.

In connection with being awarded the title European Capital of Culture in 2014, Umeå now invites creative people from all over the world to participate in one of the biggest non-commercial art competitions of 2013; Artists Caught by [Umeå].Participants are encouraged to explore Umeå and the region around it, submitting their own artistic interpretations of life and culture in this region. The artworks submitted will together present a collective imagination of life in Umeå and the north of Sweden, and as such will go on tour through eight European cities. Finally they will form a key contribution to the programme year of Umeå2014. The organizer of the competition is Umeå2014, a project in the Municipality of Umeå.

1. Eligibility & how you compete

1.1 Who can enter the competition?

Entry to the competition is free and open to anyone aged 18 or over. Employees or other representatives and the immediate family members of the organizers are not eligible to enter or otherwise participate in the competition.

1.2 Topic and inspiration

Each artwork submitted must be inspired by the life and culture of Umeå and its surrounding region in northern Sweden. Here great nature, the prominent and lively Umeå University, fresh air, a strong culture of straight edge music and lifestyle, aerospace research, hit pop music bands and the only indigenous people in the EU, the Sámi people, exist side by side.

You must explain the thinking behind your artwork, in English, when you submit your artwork to the competition. Both the artwork itself and the description will be assessed by the jury.

On www.caughtbyumea.com and the Facebook site “Artists Caught by [Umeå]”, local people from northern Sweden will provide you with inspiration about the culture of northern Sweden through text, pictures, links and video clips. You are welcome to post questions or your own thoughts, and to interact with them and others on the Caught by [Umeå] Facebook page and by using #caughtbyumea on Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.

1.3 Competition process

Sign-up and submission

The sign-up process takes place on www.caughtbyumea.com (including any and all mirror, derivative sites and/or localized versions thereof, as applicable) in two stages First you sign up to create an account, and second you submit your artwork/s. You can choose to sign up with or without your Facebook account.

By signing up you show your intent to start creating an artwork and participate in the competition. Please observe, however, that it is only when you submit your artwork that you participate in the competition. Signing up does not oblige you to finalize and submit your artwork.

When you sign up you must choose: (a) in what category out of PHOTO, FILM and DESIGN you wish to submit, and (b) what preferred semi-final tour city you wish to compete in.

When your artwork is ready, you submit it by uploading a photo, film or 1-2 photos of your design. As a part of the submission you have to provide a description of the artwork and specify what elements from the culture in northern Sweden have inspired you to create it. You can submit maximum one PHOTO, one FILM and one DESIGN artwork per semi-final tour city.

Submission period

The submission period is between 2 April 2013 and midnight, CET, on 30 June 2013.

Semi-finalists

The jury in each semi-final city will choose eight submissions (apart from in Barcelona where there will be 16) as semi-finalists. The jury assessment will take place in the first two weeks of July. On 15 July, the semi-finalists will be announced on www.caughtbyumea.com, and the “People’s Vote” will start.

The People’s Vote will choose 24 category winners

The next choice from among the semi-finalists will be done by public online ballot, the “People’s Vote”. Voting is done through a Facebook Application.

Each member of the public can vote on one submission per semi-final city. The submission with most votes in each semi-final city is chosen as the category winner. If competition submissions share the same number of votes, the semi-final jury will be called in to make the final choice.

The European tour ”Caught by [Umeå]”

The 64 semi-finalist submissions will be displayed on the European exhibition tour, called the “Caught by [Umeå] tour”. It starts in Copenhagen on 5 September and finishes in Umeå in January 2014. At a VIP dinner in each semi-final city, the three winners (apart from in Barcelona where there will be six) in that city (i.e. who has chosen that city as “preferred semi-final city”) will be presented, as a result of the People’s Vote for that city.

Competition and tour preliminary dates

2 April – Midnight CET June 30: Competition open for sign-up and submission

15 July: The semi-finalists are presented on www.caughtbyumea.com on 2013 and the People´s Vote opens.

2. Submission requirements and competition terms

All entries submitted must be original and created by the contestant for the purpose of participating in this competition. Entries must not have been published or made available to the public before the submission date. Entries shall not infringe any copyrights or any other interests of third parties.

You may only submit one artwork per category (PHOTO, FILM and DESIGN) in each semi-final city. You cannot enter the same artwork in the competition more than once.

The artworks submitted must not include pornographic, violent, gory, racist or other offensive material.

Umeå2014 reserves the right, in its sole discretion, at any time during the competition, to disqualify and remove any entry that does not comply with the requirements of the competition.

By taking part of the competition you agree – if you are among the semi-finalists, category finalists and/or the finalists – that you may be subject to additional terms or a release for being eligible for the last part of the competition.

If there is sufficient evidence (in Umeå2014’s sole discretion) to suggest malpractice or manipulation of the rating process, then Umeå2014 has the right to remove the relevant artworks submitted and, if necessary, award the prize to a different contestant. Umeå2014’s decisions are final.

To the extent permitted by applicable law, neither the organizers nor any other companies associated with the competition are responsible for incorrect or inaccurate entry of information, human error, technical malfunction, lost/delayed data transmission, for problems uploading any entries or downloading any competition-related materials from the competition site, or for late, lost, damaged, misdirected, incorrect or incomplete entries. For the sake of clarity, receipt of an entry occurs when the competition site’s servers have successfully received the uploaded artwork and the entry information required.

All artworks and entry information collected during the competition shall be used by the organizers only in a manner consistent with these terms. Personal data are saved only for the duration of the Artists Caught by [Umeå] competition and the Caught by [Umeå] tour and will afterwards be deleted.

The organizers may cancel, modify, or suspend the competition due to a force majeure event or any other event beyond the organizers’ reasonable control. In the event of termination, the organizers reserve the right, at their sole discretion, to determine the winner from among all the eligible entries received up to the time of such action using the judging procedure set forth herein.

2.1 Category technical criteria for submissions

FILM category:

- Films/videos have to be uploaded to the contestant´s own Vimeo account (www.vimeo.com) and be a maximum of three (3) minutes in length. At the submission you will be instructed how to paste in the link to the film that you have uploaded to your Vimeo account.

PHOTO category:

- Photos need to be of a maximum size of 4000×4000 pixels and uploaded in a high-resolution format (300 dpi) with maximum 5 Mb.

DESIGN category:

- Design objects submitted have to be of such a size and format that one can easily carry them with you by hand (for example a cup, a box, a tool) or on your person (for example, an item of clothing, a bag, jewellery). It must also be made primarily from recycled materials (for example, a second-hand piece of clothing, old plastic or driftwood). On submission, the contestant will be asked to submit two photos of the object. Only if the submitted object is chosen to be in the semi-final will the competitor be asked to send in the physical object to be part of the Caught by [Umeå] tour.

For all categories, the artwork descriptions must be written in English and should not exceed 1 000 characters.

In order to be able to show the uploaded photos and films in the gallery mode, all photos in the grid view will be cropped to 213 x 213 pixels. This will not affect the jury´s assessment, as they will have access to the original photo and film.

The semi-finalists in the DESIGN category will be contacted and asked to send the physical object to the local Visit Sweden office in the semi-final city. The physical objects submitted to the DESIGN category will not automatically be returned to the owner.

2.2 The category juries and assessment criteria

The winners will be selected and awarded by a separate jury for each semi-final city. Each category jury consists of both Swedish jury members and local jury members from the semi-final cities.

The selection of the semi-finalists and of the final winner will be the result of an unquestionable evaluation on the part of the jury. The jury will only judge submissions that comply with the competition criteria as listed under “Category criteria for submissions”. The selection criteria for semi-final and final entries, apart from the compliance with the category criteria for submission, will in the functional art category be:
- How original is the artwork? (Is the artwork an individual and independent creation of the participant artist?)
- How progressive is the artwork?
- The artist’s description of the artwork and how the creative process was inspired by life and culture in Umeå and the north of Sweden.

The juries’ decisions are final and binding in all matters relating to the competition, including interpretation and application of these competition terms. The Competition Organisers reserve the right, in their sole discretion, to disqualify any individual found tampering with the entry process or entry materials, or otherwise interfering with the proper administration of the competition or violating these terms.

3. Prizes

The 64 Semi-finalists (eight semi-finalists in each semi-final city) will all be:

- invited to the VIP dinner in the semi-final city in which they are competing.
- the semi-finalists will be presented by name and winning artwork as part of the marketing of the competition.
- exhibited in a digital gallery on www.caughtbyumea.com during 2014 when Umeå is the European Capital of Culture.

The 24 category winners (top-three winners in each of the semi-final cities) will all be:

- the semi-finalists will be presented by name and winning artwork as part of the marketing of the competition.
- exhibited in a digital gallery on www.caughtbyumea.com during 2014 when Umeå is the European Capital of Culture.

The 3 Grand Finale winners (top-three final winners) will each be:

- 3 000 Euros in prize money and presented by name and winning artwork as part of the marketing of the competition.
- the semi-finalists will be presented by name and winning artwork as part of the marketing of the competition.
- exhibited in a digital gallery on www.caughtbyumea.com during 2014 when Umeå is the European Capital of Culture.

Any taxes will be paid by the winner. The VIP dinners will be free of charge, but travel expenses to and from the semi-final city are at the participants’ own expense.

4. Intellectual Property and Publicity Rights

You hereby grant, for the duration of the competition, the Caught by [Umeå] Tour and the Umeå2014 (as the European Capital of Culture year January t –December 31, 2014) the rights to display, exhibit and distribute any and all artworks submitted as part of the programme year and marketing activities of the exhibit Tour and Capital of Culture activities. During this period you cannot use your artwork, and the rights granted to the Caught by [Umeå] Tour and the Umeå2014 during the period of the competition is exclusive.

Furthermore, Umeå2014 and its event partner have the non-exclusive rights to use any image submitted to the competition, for marketing and promotional purposes for a period of three years after the awards ceremony in January 2014.

The rights granted by you are worldwide, royalty-free and apply regardless of whatever technique that is used for the display, exhibition or distribution of the artworks, i.e. the rights include making available the artworks in any and all media, including but not limited to digital and electronic media, computer, audio and audio-visual media (whether now existing or hereinafter devised).

By entering the competition, except where prohibited by law, you agree that the organizers and their respective affiliates and promotional partners and third party marketing entities shall have the right and permission to use and announce your name, picture/photograph or likeness and biographical data for promotional, advertising, and/or publicity in any and all media, including but not limited to digital and electronic media, computer, audio and audio-visual media (whether now existing or hereinafter devised), in any language, throughout the world.

5. Warranties

By taking part in the competition you hereby guarantee that;

- you have read, understood and accepted these terms,
- you are eligible to participate in the competition;
- the artwork you have submitted to the competition (your entry) is original, created and owned by you and has not been made available to the public/published before the submission;
- the use of the artwork by Umeå2014 and the Caught by [Umeå] Tour does not infringe upon third party rights (copyrights, trademarks, patents, trade secrets, logos, contract and licensing rights, rights of publicity or privacy, moral rights, or any other intellectual property rights) and does not require any residual payments to you or any third party rights; and you therefore guarantee that:
- you are not represented by an agent or contract, which representation is in conflict with the grant of rights under these terms, and that – if you have collaborated with others in creating the artwork – the rights of such collaborators are cleared by you prior to your submitting the artwork to the competition;
- the artwork does not contain any use of the names, likenesses, photographs, or other identifying elements, in whole or in part, of any person, living, or dead without permission;
- the artwork does not include trademarks, logos, or copyrighted material not owned by you or used without permission (including but not limited to company names, music, photographs, works of art or images published on or in websites, television, movies, or other media) or otherwise infringe or violate the rights of any third party, including but not limited to copyrights, trademarks, patents, trade secrets, logos, contract and licensing rights, rights of publicity or privacy, moral rights, or any other intellectual property rights.

6. Confidentiality

You acknowledge and agree that the relationship between you and the organizers is not confidential, and that your submission of an entry to the competition does not place you in a position that is any different from the position held by members of the general public with regard to elements of the entry, other than as set forth in these terms.

7. Choice of Law

This competition is governed by the laws of Sweden. Any and all legal actions or claims arising in connection with this competition must be brought in a court of competent jurisdiction in the District Court of Stockholm as a first instance.

8. Changes to this Terms & Conditions

In the case of changes to these Terms & Conditions, Umeå2014 will communicate this clearly on www.caughtbyumea.com and the Caught by [Umeå] page on Facebook.